Digital Commons Network^™

Social Imaginaries And The Theory Of The Normative Utterance, Meili Steele

Faculty Publications

Theorists of the social imaginary, such as Benedict Anderson, Charles Taylor, Cornelius Castoriadis, and Marcel Gauchet have given us new ways to talk about the structures of the shared meanings and practices of the West. As a group, they have directed their arguments against the narrow horizons of meaning oyed by deliberative political theories in developing their basic normative concepts and principles. Anderson speaks of the new shapes of time and space provided by the novel and newspaper; Taylor and Gauchet discuss the ontological importance of the emergence of secularity, the public sphere, popular sovereignty, and the market; Castoriadis places …

Dynamic Change Of Awareness During Meditation Techniques: Neural And Physiological Correlates, David Dillard-Wright

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Life, Transferable: Questioning The Commodity-Based Approach To Transplantation Ethics, David Dillard-Wright

Faculty Publications

Some bioethicists have proposed a legalized market in human organs as a solution to transplant waiting lists and global poverty. Solutions to organ procurement problems that are solely market-based would unfairly shift the burdens of medical procedures onto developing nations. Market advocates base their claims on the understanding of organs as property, a position that should be problematized. Instrumentalizing people in this way is made part of the broader commodification of animals and the environment. Combating the market mentality requires a return to the holistic view of bioethics that led to the founding of the field.

Development Of Clinical Ethics Services In The Uk: A National Survey, Anne Marie Slowther, Leah Mcclimans, Charlotte Price

Faculty Publications

Background In 2001 a report on the provision of clinical ethics support in UK healthcare institutions identified 20 clinical ethics committees. Since then there has been no systematic evaluation or documentation of their work at a national level. Recent national surveys of clinical ethics services in other countries have identified wide variation in practice and scope of activities.

Objective To describe the current provision of ethics support in the UK and its development since 2001.

Method A postal/electronic questionnaire survey administered to the chairs of all 82 clinical ethics services registered with the UK Clinical Ethics Network in July 2010. …

The Third Covenant: People, Animals, And Land In The Jewish And Christian Scriptures, David Dillard-Wright

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Nanomaterials And The Precautionary Principle, Kevin C. Elliott Phd

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Direct And Indirect Roles For Values In Science, Kevin Elliott

Faculty Publications

Although many philosophers have employed the distinction between "direct" and "indirect" roles for values in science, I argue that it merits further clarification. The distinction can be formulated in several ways: as a logical point, as a distinction between epistemic attitudes, or as a clarification of different consequences associated with accepting scientific claims. Moreover, it can serve either as part of a normative ideal or as a tool for policing how values influence science. While various formulations of the distinction may (with further clarification) contribute to a normative ideal, they have limited effectiveness for regulating how values influence science.

Book Review: Moses Mendelssohn - Begründer Des Modernen Judentums, By Dominique Bourel, Anne Pollok

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

How Values In Scientific Discovery And Pursuit Alter Theory Appraisal, Kevin C. Elliott, Daniel J. Mckaughan

Faculty Publications

Philosophers of science readily acknowledge that nonepistemic values influence the discovery and pursuit of scientific theories, but many tend to regard these influences as epistemically uninteresting. The present paper challenges this position by identifying three avenues through which nonepistemic values associated with discovery and pursuit in contemporary pollution research influence theory appraisal: (1) by guiding the choice
of questions and research projects, (2) by altering experimental design, and (3) by affecting the creation and further investigation of theories or hypotheses. This analysis indicates that the effects of these values are sufficiently complex and epistemically significant to merit further attention.

Book Review: Kant And The Metaphysics Of Causality By Eric Watkins, Konstantin Pollok

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

"An Almost Single Inference": Kant's Deduction Of The Categories Reconsidered, Konstantin Pollok

Faculty Publications

By taking into account some texts published between the first and the second edition of the Critique of Pure Reason that have been neglected by most of those who have dealt with the deduction of the categories, I argue that the core of the deduction is to be identified as the 'almost single inference from the precisely determined definition of a judgment in general,' which Kant adumbrates in the Metaphysical Foundations in order to 'make up for the deficiency' of the A-deduction. Whereas the first step of the B-deduction is an attempt to show that the manifold of an intuition …

Book Review: Nanoethics: The Ethical And Social Implications Of Nanotechnology, Kevin Elliott

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Sympathy And The Non-Human: Max Scheler’S Phenomenology Of Interrelation, David Dillard-Wright

Faculty Publications

German phenomenologist and sociologist Max Scheler accorded sympathy a central role in his philosophy, arguing that sympathy enables not only ethical behaviour, but also knowledge of animate and inanimate others. Influenced by Catholicism and especially St Francis, Scheler envisioned a broad, cosmic sympathy forming the hidden basis for all human values, with the “higher” religious, artistic, philosophic and other cultural values enabled by a more basic regard for non-human nature and insights gained from the human situation within the non-human world. Sympathy for the non-human is thus both integral and fundamental to the cultivation of other values in the development …

The Ethics Of Infection Control: Philosophical Frameworks, Charles S. Bryan, Theresa J. Call, Kevin Elliott

Faculty Publications

Recent developments that are relevant to the ethics of infection control include the patient safety movement, the appearance of new diseases (notably, severe acute respiratory syndrome) that pose threats to healthcare workers, data confirming the suspicion that infection control measures such as isolation may compromise patient care, and, in philosophy, renewed interest in virtue ethics and communitarianism. We review general ethical frameworks and relevant vocabulary for infection control practitioners and hospital epidemiologists. Frameworks for the ethics of infection control resemble those of public health more than those of clinical medicine but embrace elements of both. The optimum framework, we suggest, …

"Wenn Vernunft Volle Gewalt Über Das Begehrungsvermögen Hätte": Über Die Gemeinsame Wurzel Der Kantischen Imperative, Konstantin Pollok

Faculty Publications

Kant hat mit seiner universalistischen, formalistischen und kognitivistischen Konzeption moralisch-praktischer Gründe in Gegenüberstellung zu seiner instrumentalistischen Konzeption nicht-moralisch-praktischer Gründe eine Begrifflichkeit geschaffen, die es erlaubt, handlungsleitende Überzeugungen hinsichtlich ihres Geltungsanspruchs und ihrer Verbindlichkeit zu differenzieren. Von einem ‚Sollen‘ spricht Kant in beiden Fällen. Nicht nur der kategorische Imperativ, der unbedingt gebietet, „ich soll niemals anders verfahren als so, daß ich auch wollen könne, meine Maxime solle ein allgemeines Gesetz werden“ (GMS, AA 04: 402), sondern auch hypothetische Imperative, die bedingt gebieten, „ich soll etwas thun, darum weil ich etwas anderes will“1, nehmen bei Kant die normative Form eines ‚Sollens‘ an. …

A Novel Account Of Scientific Anomaly: Help For The Dispute Over Low-Dose Biochemical Effects, Kevin C. Elliott

Faculty Publications

The biological effects of low doses of toxic and carcinogenic chemicals are currently a matter of significant scientific controversy. This paper argues that philosophers of science can contribute to alleviating this controversy by examining it with the aid of a novel account of scientific anomaly. Specifically, analysis of contemporary research on chemical hormesis (i.e.. alleged beneficial biological effects produced by low doses of substances that are harmful at higher doses) suggests that scientists may initially describe anomalous phenomena in terms of multiple distinct '"characterizations," each
of which is compatible with current empirical evidence. By focusing attention on this feature of …

The Ethical Importance Of Being Human: God And Humanism In Levinas's Philosophy, Pat J. Gehrke

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Die Normativität Des Expressiven: Überlegungen Zum Begriff Der Wahrhaftigkeit, Konstantin Pollok

Faculty Publications

Welchen Standards müssen Personen genügen, damit ihre Äußerungen als wahrhaftig angesehen werden? Nicht Wahrhaftigkeit als soziale Tugend (Aristoteles, Kant) und auch nicht Wahrhaftigkeit als notwendige Argumentationsvoraussetzung (Habermas), sondern die normativen Voraussetzungen wahrhaftiger Äußerungen von Überzeugungen, Werten, Wünschen und Gefühlen einer Person, d. h. eine Analyse der normativen Erfordernisse der Wahrhaftigkeit als Teilaspekt einer Sprachpragmatik, sind das Thema dieses Aufsatzes. Ausgehend von Überlegungen Wittgensteins, John Broomes und Robert Brandoms untersuche ich die normative Feinstruktur der Differenz zwischen dem 'Äußern' und dem 'Besitzen' eines propositionalen Gehalts sowie der Vorsätzlichkeit dieser Differenz im 'Äußern'. Mein Ergebnis ist schließlich: Person B glaubt, daß die …

Book Review Of Philip Pothen's "Nietzsche And The Fate Of Art", Murray Skees

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Error As Means To Discovery, Kevin C. Elliott

Faculty Publications

This paper argues, first, that recent studies of experimentation, most notably by Deborah Mayo, provide the conceptual resources to describe scientific discovery’s early stages as error-probing processes. Second, it shows that this description yields greater understanding of those early stages, including the challenges that they pose, the research strategies associated with them, and their influence on the rest of the discovery process. Throughout, the paper examines the phenomenon of ‘‘chemical hormesis’’ (i.e., anomalous low-dose effects from toxic chemicals) as a case study that is important not only for the biological sciences but also for contemporary public policy. The resulting analysis …

Review: Kants Naturtheoretische Begriffe (1747-1780). Eine Datenbank Zu Ihren Expliziten Und Impliziten Vernetzungen., Konstantin Pollok

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Book Review: Immanuel Kant - Kritik Der Reinen Vernunft, Eds. Georg Mohr, Marcus Willaschek, Konstantin Pollok

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Book Review: Immanuel Kant - Prolegomena To Any Future Metaphysics That Will Be Able To Come Forward As Science, Ed. Gary Hatfield, Konstantin Pollok

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Conceptual Clarification And Policy-Related Science: The Case Of Chemical Hormesis, Kevin C. Elliott

Faculty Publications

This paper examines the epistemological warrant for a toxicological phenomenon known as chemical hormesis. First, it argues that conceptual confusion contributes significantly to current disagreements about the status of chemical hormesis as a biological hypothesis. Second, it analyzes seven distinct concepts of chemical hormesis, arguing that none are completely satisfactory. Finally, it suggests three ramifications of this analysis for ongoing debates about the epistemological status of chemical hormesis. This serves as a case study supporting the value of philosophical methodologies such as conceptual clarification for addressing contemporary scientific disputes, including policy-related scientific disputes that may be heavily influencedby social and …